ELKHART, Ind. — During a town hall meeting in Indiana on Thursday, Barack Obama cited the Bible as being one of his reasons for his stance that boys who identify as girls should be allowed to use the girls’ restroom.

During the event, Obama was asked by attendee Arvis Dawson why he seemingly has made the issue a priority in his administration.

“I’m a strong believer in equal rights for everyone—a very strong believer in that. I was wondering, though, with all the pressing issues you have before you right now, why is the issue of which bathroom a person uses such an issue?” he asked.

“Somehow people think I made it an issue,” Obama replied. “I didn’t make it an issue. There are a lot of things that are more pressing; you are absolutely right.”

He proceeded to explain that schools across the country had been contacting the Department of Education to ask how the matter should be handled now that students are increasingly coming out as transgender.

“What happened, and what continues to happen is you have transgender kids in schools and they get bullied and they get ostracized, and its tough for them,” Obama said. “We’re of a generation where that stuff was all out of sight and out of mind, and so people suffered silently, but now they’re out in the open. And … schools are asking us, ‘How should we deal with this?'”

“And my answer is that we should deal with this issue the same way we would want it dealt with if it was our child—and that is to try to create and environment of some dignity and kindness for these kids. And that’s sort of the bottom line,” he continued. “I have to say what’s in my heart, but I also have to look at, you know, what’s the law. And my best interpretation of what our laws and our obligations are is that we should try to accommodate these kids so that they are not in a vulnerable situation.”

Obama then stated that he understands those who have religious objections.

“I understand [there are] people [who because of] religious beliefs or just general discomfort might disagree,” he said. “I’m not the one who’s making an issue of it. But if the school districts around the country ask me, ‘What do you think we should do?’ then what we’re going to do is tell them, ‘Let’s find a way to accommodate them and a way to make sure that these kids are not excluded and ostracized.”

Dawson explained that because of his church background, he believes people should continue to use the restroom they always had been using.

“I have profound respect for everyone’s religious beliefs on this,” Obama replied. “But if you’re in a public school, the question is, how to we just make sure that children are treated with kindness? That’s all. And my reading of Scripture tells me that the Golden Rule is pretty high up there in terms of my Christian belief.”

“That doesn’t mean that everyone has to interpret it the same way, but as president of the United States, those are the values that I think are important,” he said. “It’s not like I woke up one day and said, ‘Let’s start working on high school bathrooms…’ One of the things, as president, you learn is that you don’t choose the issues all the time; issues come to you, and then you have to make your best judgment about what you think is right.”

In the Scriptures, Christians are instructed to be kind, but to help turn their neighbor from sin rather than accommodate it.

“And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves—if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will,” 2 Timothy 2:24-26 reads.

James 5:19-20 also states, “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.”

A special message from the publisher...

Dear Reader, our hearts are deeply grieved by the ongoing devastation in Iraq, and through this we have been compelled to take a stand at the gates of hell against the enemy who came to kill and destroy. Bibles for Iraq is a project to put Arabic and Kurdish audio Bibles into the hands of Iraqi and Syrian refugees—many of whom are illiterate and who have never heard the gospel.Will you stand with us and make a donation today to this important effort? Please click here to send a Bible to a refugee >>

Commenting Guidelines: We welcome readers to comment on stories, but we will not tolerate remarks containing profanity, vulgarity, violence, blasphemy, all caps or any discourteous behavior. Thank you for your cooperation in maintaining a respectful public environment where readers can engage in reasonable discussion about matters affecting our nation and our world.Read More →

storie

“I’m not making an issue of this”…..hmmm……
Sounds like he’s ‘passing the buck’.

Josey

he always passes the buck when confronted.

TheBottomline4This

This muslim fool will be dealt with perfectly by God, Who in fact trumps Barack Hussein Obama’s foolish opinion. What a nut job BHO is. We are to respect the office of the Presidency, but that doesn’t mean the person in the office is worthy of respect. So glad this guy will be out of the White House soon.

George

couldn’t agree more with you, good riddance of this abomination….

Justsomeguy151

Why? He’s going to be replaced w/ Hitlerry, who will be worse and will finish off America. She’s already been Selected by the Banksters who really run the show.

Kerry Hall

He wants the government telling us how to raise our children. Parents need to get off their backsides and start reinforcing the basic principles of nature and since he referenced the Bible, that only 2 sexes were created and neither was given a choice as to what they “identified” as.

TheBottomline4This

God makes no mistakes in what gender/sex we are born. That is who we are and will die, no matter how we change the outside.

Kerry Hall

No place in the Bible is anything called the “Golden Rule” even mentioned. I know what he refers to, but all of them could be considered “Golden” if you think about it.

SFBruce

Matthew 7:12
So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

It’s true that the words “Golden Rule” don’t appear in the text, but this sounds like the golden rule to me. There’s also Luke 10:27 and Mark 30-31.

ComeOnPeople!

If I had departed from reality and was hurting God and man by my choices , I would want others to help me to turn around. So therefore when I see someone who has fallen away from God’s instructions, from what God has created them to be and see that they are hurting others via their choices … I do what I would have them do unto me. I tell them no matter how offered they become. It would be better to be offered then to remain blind to the TRUTH. Love is not passive. Love pulls others from danger but indifference allows them to fall away from reality, their Creator and from those who care about them. Sin is very self serving and cares little of how it affects others. Sin by the way is transgressing God’s laws… not man’s laws or opinions but God’s instructions.

SFBruce

Is it possible you don’t know what’s right for every person? Has it occurred to you that if people are offended by your advice that you might want to reconsider the advice itself, or at least the way you offer that advice? I don’t think any of us has all the answers.

TheBottomline4This

Maybe those who don’t like the advice they hear are being stubborn or unteachable or just don’t care to improve. God knows best, not us. He doesn’t approve of choices that goes against His. He made each of us the gender/sex He wants us to be. To go against that is to go against God. So on that issue, yes we do know what is right for the person who isn’t living who God made them…male or female.

Josey

they are living in rebellion when they do not accept the gender assigned to them at birth.

TheBottomline4This

It isn’t really reassigned or whatever term they want to use. It’s a mental illness that satan is having a hay day with.

Jessee Michael

Do you feel you’re a man or woman simply because you have the corresponding parts? And if you lost those parts in a horrible accident, or to cancer, would you still feel the same way? Would you still be attracted to the opposite sex?

ComeOnPeople!

A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient…

I do not have all the answers yet I do understand that God moved upon men and had them write down instructions so that I would know what is pleasing or displeasing to my Creator. In those instructions I find life and how to live here on this earth. I find how to love my KING and how to love my fellow man. Do I know everything of course not!
I only see threw a glass darkly until HE returns. Until then I use the light of HIS words to see and walk out this very short time here.

As to know what is right for every person… The Creator is not a respecter of persons. If HE says something is wrong for one person then it’s wrong or if HE says it’s right then it’s right. Some things are right in your face when you study HIS instructions to mankind and others you must put line upon line and study to show yourself approved, rightly dividing the word of TRUTH.

SFBruce

At least we agree that none of us has all the answers, but I disagree that what’s right for one person is always right for all other persons. It happens that I see myself as a man, and like most people, that’s consistent with my physiology. But there are people whose sense of their gender is at odds with their physiology, and I simply don’t see how condition could possibly be offensive to God. I’m also right handed, but that doesn’t mean I’m better or worse than someone who is left handed. I need glasses to read, but that doesn’t make me less of a person than someone with perfect vision. I think all people have equal worth as human beings, but that doesn’t mean we’re all exactly the same.

ComeOnPeople!

Being right handed or left has nothing to do with your thoughts or feelings. Needing glasses has nothing to do with your thoughts or your feelings. God created all of us either a male or a female and there are science to back up the many many differences between a man and a woman.There are way more markers then physiology between the sexes. There is DNA and there is proven brain pattern differences. God made males and females different for a reason. To deny that their that a man is a man or a woman is a woman is to deny reality and to spit in the face of the CREATOR.

Florenca Mcdowell

Read the Bible then you will know God’s thoughts on this subject.
It seems that your opinion to YOU is more important than God’s

SFBruce

Surely you know that even those who spend their lives studying the Bible don’t agree on its exact meaning for us today. When I form an opinion, I try to base it on the best evidence available; I know I don’t have all the answers, but it I think we have a critical mind for a reason.

Justsomeguy151

Has it occurred to you that these people are mentally ill?

SFBruce

Those who study mental illness no longer believe it’s a mental illness. Why do you think you know more about it that they do?

Florenca Mcdowell

You are NOT be truthful. They Drs. do indeed describe trans gender identity as mental illness.

SFBruce

The American Psychological Association:
“A psychological state is considered a mental disorder only if it causes significant distress or disability. Many transgender people do not experience their gender as distressing or disabling, which implies that identifying as transgender does not constitute a mental disorder.”

WebMD:
“Gender dysphoria used to be called “gender identity disorder.” But the mismatch between body and internal sense of gender is not a mental illness.”

Kerry Hall

Like I said, I knew what he was referring to, but it’s a man-made label and Obama really used it way out of context here.

SFBruce

What does it matter that it’s a man made label? I see it as the very core of Jesus’ teachings, and a common feature of all the major religions. All Obama is trying to say is trans individuals deserving the same kind of compassion and respect as everyone else.

Larlo Hall

II Timothy 3
1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. KJV
These transgenders are lovers of self; unthankful for life; unholy, without natural affection; heady; lovers of self; denying that God knows what is best for them; without respect for their parents or for God…Satan has infiltrated their minds and they are reprobates (having corrupt minds, reprobates [no respect for God] concerning the faith) as the apostle Paul told Timothy, in the 8th verse of this same chapter. In other words: God didn’t make a place for them in His creation since He didn’t create their kind. It was simply their doing and so they will have to live with it and deal with it on their own and society should not be changed to accommodate their decisions. Don’t blame God for your sins! He made us who we are; for a reason and these creatures will be sorry for their sin one day soon; very soon; if not already!

ComeOnPeople!

Because for 2,000 years churches have preached the lie that God’s law (which by the way is perfect) was nailed to the cross, they now have to deal with lawlessness. Jesus did not nail the law to the cross but the penalty which is death. The law of sin and death was and still is that disobedience to God’s law brings forth death (separation from God).

So here we are today with all kinds of immoral behaviors and sins running ramped. The church needs to repent and start teaching from the beginning of the book again like the early Apostles . This world needs God’s instructions , not manmade traditions and opinions.

Oh and as to love Mr. P. … The bible says if you love God you will keep HIS instructions (laws). The bible tells us also how to love our fellow man and it’s not by agreeing with his departure from reality or by catering to his every whim, it’s by helping them to see God’s ways and turning them back to HIM. So sorry there is no private interpretation … Truth is not hard to understand once you shed off 2000 years of deception and just READ the instruction manual for yourself.

Roger Culver

Shut up muslim

Josey

I don’t believe that schools began to call the dept. of education asking, “what do we do? Tell us what to do with transgenders.” There might of been **A school** that called because of it but I’d bet schools as in plural didn’t call them, he’s a liar. These liars with these agendas like to use anonymous callers that don’t exist or just make claims schools called when the only way to prove schools and what schools actually did call is to get the info. from the dept. of education so they throw out lies that no one can actually prove w/out going through hoops to get the truth and in this case the media should request the info. through the freedom of info act to see if his statement is true or a lie. The Bible says, thou shalt not lie Mr. President or did you omit that part…Because of course he’s lying about getting calls about this and this is his issue and one of his evil agendas and to use the Bible as he did, what a mockery.

Grace Kim Kwon

Obama simply wants to destroy America from the foundation. He needs to read all of the Holy Bible. Sin has no equal rights with anything. Sin is slavery.

The Last Trump

The Golden Rule was about allowing men in the ladies room? Really?
Regardless of endangering women & children and causing them to feel threatened?
Huh. And all of this time I thought it referred to something completely different.
Strange though, that up until this chaotic and volatile generation, everybody seemed to know where to pee just fine without any confusion whatsoever…

Jessee Michael

Exactly. You were probably in the stall next to a transgendered man with lady parts all this time and never worried about it either.

Becky

Lol!! Spot on!!

Slidellman4life

Chutzpah!

drcarolynhilt

I call this cafeteria Christianity. Pick which item you like. Just choose which verse you like and apply it to your situation. Next thing we know it will be quoting from Acts where “Judas hung himself” as the acceptable way to commit suicide. Deliver us.

Tom Rogers

Which bible is he reading from? IGod made male and female, not transgenders. This guy is the biggest fool on earth!

Tom Rogers

What about the non transgender kids privacy and dignity from the opposite sex when using the bathroom, shower, or locker room? This guy is an idiot! He thinks that just because he is the president and says something people are going to believe it. Well guess what King Obama, it not going to happen..

http://www.personaltouchmaids.org/ TammyHenson

By quoting James, who is he referring to? Who is the one that has turned to sin? Who is the one that is turning them from the error of their ways? What is he considering to be the error, the transgender or the one saying it’s wrong? By quoting 2 Timothy, is he saying the transgender is in the snare of the devil & taken captive by him?

christiannewsnetwork

Hi Tammy. Obama didn’t quote from 2 Timothy and James; we did, as we notated at the end of the report, “Christians are instructed to be kind, but to help turn their neighbor from sin rather than accommodate it.” Obama had pointed to the Golden Rule as his reasoning.

http://www.personaltouchmaids.org/ TammyHenson

Oh OK. Sorry about that. I suck when it comes to thoroughly reading things at times.

Mary Taylor

He’s really some kind of stupid. Using the Bible to make a point, bet he’s never read it. God made only two genders, male and female.

Both of them? They’re smart enough to not make an issue over this and just use the neutral john.

gogo0

i keep hearing how god made only two genders, male and female, yet some people are naturally born with ambiguous sex due to mismatched chromosomes and physical features, as well as people born with both male and female pairs (XXY).
i have yet to see either of those, both god’s natural creations, addressed at all

Justsomeguy151

That’s because contrary to popular belief, nothing is “evolving” or getting better but the human genome is breaking down. It also points to all of the garbage that Monsanto and other criminals put in our food on top of radiation. Those poor people don’t want stupid laws like this. They’d rather live their lives in private and not public humiliation. The LAST thing they want is to call attention to themselves. Fortunately, that mutation is rare but I would guess that they use the bathroom that their appearance affords them. So if a man who looks like a woman or has both would use the bathroom that will get them noticed the least, IMO.

gogo0

cool conspiracy theory. have any peer reviewed evidence?
btw did you hear that the earth is flat?! wow lol amazing, check it out on youtube next to the GMOs break down the human genome video

Justsomeguy151

I don’t know what you read but I named no conspiracy theory. Why do you think the earth is flat? Could it be because you are a troll? Its fact that the human genome is breaking down. Or were you so ignorant that you fantasized that those mutations were beneficial to anyone??. Ever heard of entropy? Or the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics? Of course not. You don’t know much of anything except how to troll.

Nidalap

What?!? An American President quotes from the Bible in the very capacity of his office and the FFRF didn’t immediately pounce?

Imagine that…

Josey

heh

Becky

Ikr! Lol!

ComeOnPeople!

Will the president overly concerned with how and where people relieving themselves please stand up… Franklin hmmm no… Lincoln um no or yeah that would be Mr. Obama.

Lanzecki

I find it very difficult to believe schools are running to him trying to figure out what to do. As far as the transgenders?…Got a news flash. GOD did NOT make you this way. This is a lifestyle choice.

James Affiliated Sievers

He’s so worried about accommodating and making the .01% of the country that’s transgendered feel comfortable that he doesn’t give two shits about the 99.99% being uncomfortable and disrespected. This guy is some piece of work. And he claims he’s not the one making it an issue, yet he issued an Executive Order trying to force schools to allow these freaks to impose their will and beliefs on our children. He’s an abomination.

James Affiliated Sievers

The “Golden Rule” is basically “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” OK, I would not expect others to allow me to use the women’s bathroom so I don’t want any other man using the women’s bathroom.

Get Breaking Christian News in Your Inbox!

Sign Me Up! Top Daily Top Weekly

Christian News Headlines

Keep your site fresh and your visitors coming back by featuring Christian News Network's top news stories on your site. Learn more →

Connect With Us:

Learn More

About Christian News Network

Christian News Network provides up-to-date news and information affecting the body of Christ worldwide from an uncompromising Biblical worldview. Our objective is to present the news with the word of God as our lens, and to bring to light what is hid in the darkness. Learn more →